InvestmentManagement

Invest wisely to protect your financial freedom

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We believe that every AAFMAA member is unique. It is only by getting to know you, and developing a clear picture of your circumstances, objectives, and challenges, that we can create the most effective investment strategy for you.

Managing and growing your hard-earned money is key to a secure future. It requires a strong grounding in financial principles and a deep understanding of market conditions. Investment Management is an on-going process of understanding your financial goals, determining your optimum portfolio, then monitoring and adjusting as necessary over time.

Whether you seek a comfortable retirement, income generation, a legacy for your heirs, or to support your favorite charity, we can create the right investment portfolio for your needs.

We will meet with you face to face to determine your needs. What are your goals, your risk tolerance, your time horizon? We determine your sensitivity to taxes and any personal investment preferences. From there, we develop an investment profile and create an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) tailored just for you.

The IPS is a written understanding of the investment objective, goals, and guidelines for your portfolio. It is the framework within which investment decisions will be made commensurate with your investment objective, risk tolerance, investment restrictions, governing instrument and establishes a basis to evaluate portfolio returns.

We will recommend a target investment strategy for you. We have seven portfolio strategies, one of which will be assigned to your portfolio:

All Equity. Primary investment objective is appreciation of principal. Income is not important. Stock exposure is 100%.

Conservative. Primary investment objective is a high income. A secondary objective is preservation of the principal purchasing power. Stock exposure ranges from 0% - 30%.

Conservation. Primary investment objective is preserving the dollar amount of the principal. Income is secondary. Stock exposure ranges from 0% - 15%.

All Fixed Income. Primary investment objective is generating income. Appreciation of principal is not important. Fixed income exposure is 100%.

AAFMAA monitors your portfolio continuously to make sure it continues to meet your investment needs. We keep you informed, periodically meeting with you to review investment performance of your portfolio. The portfolio is adjusted as necessary.

AAFMAA’s investment philosophy is doing what is right for our members. We base all of our decisions on a patient, long-term perspective. We believe that the single most important determinant of investment success is a proper asset allocation that matches your long-term investment goals; timeframe, and ability to tolerate short-term market volatility.

Investment success based upon a proper asset allocation is supported by numerous historical studies. One of the most widely referenced studies (“Determinants of Portfolio Performance” by Gary Brinson, Randolph Hood and Gilbert Beebower) showed that 90% - 95% of the returns generated by a large sampling of pension funds over a certain 10-year period were due to their asset allocation rather security selection. In other words, an investor’s exposure to a certain asset class was more important than the specific securities within that class.

While we are firm believers in the power of a long-term, focused, and properly allocated portfolio, we are also keenly aware of the need to mitigate risk whenever possible. As such, diversification strategies are key to our investment process. By dividing a portfolio carefully among selected asset classes, an investor has the ability to maximize potential return at an acceptable level of risk.

Our investment process uses a combination of mutual funds, as well as individual stocks and bonds when constructing your portfolio. We use actively managed mutual funds (where the managers seek to outperform an index through investment selection) whenever we feel that the management of that fund can deliver better risk adjusted returns, net of taxes and fees, than a passive index approach could. When we cannot find an appropriate active fund, we will use passive index funds to obtain our desired asset class exposure.

Prior to any mutual fund, stock or bond being purchased for a member’s portfolio, we conduct a rigorous review and assessment process. Once purchased, all investments are monitored continuously and adjusted as needed.

We believe systematic rebalancing of assets is essential to maintaining the consistency of an investment account’s returns and risk profile. We do not use a periodic rebalancing method where portfolios are rebalanced at specific times of the year. Instead, we use a percentage-based methodology where portfolios are rebalanced whenever set parameters are reached. When an asset classes exceeds a specified percentage of the portfolio we pare back that class and move it into an under-represented class.

*The Investment Management Fee for an account invested 100% in fixed income is a flat 60 basis points (0.60% per annum).

**This communication is not a covered opinion as defined in Circular 230 and is limited to the Federal tax issues addressed herein. Additional issues may exist that affect the Federal tax treatment of the transaction. The communication was not intended or written to be used, or relied upon, by the taxpayer, to avoid federal tax penalties.